1. Field
The present disclosure is related to the use of secure portable containers to transport and dispense medications, particularly from a central automated dispensing machine (ADM) to the bedside of a patient.
2. Description of the Related Art
Patients in hospitals receive multiple medications on a regular schedule or on an as-needed basis, also known as “PRN” (meaning “when necessary” from the Latin “pro re nata”). Medications are frequently stored in an ADM that may be located at a nurse's station or other central location. Some ADMs, such as the Pyxis MedStation™, use secure transportable containers, such as the CUBIE® pockets used with the MedStation, to transfer medications between the filling location, for example a pharmacy, and the ADMs. Such a system is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,116,461 to Broadfield et al., for example. These containers are secure during transport and may be opened only after being placed in the ADM and after entry of the proper identification information by the nurse. Some hospitals utilize pharmacy systems that allow the pharmacists to enter approved prescriptions into the system. In these pharmacy systems, the ADMs are configured to require identification of the patient for which a medication is being requested, check whether that medication has been prescribed for that patient, and allow the nurse access to the medication only if the medication has been prescribed.
In some hospitals, the medication administration protocol requires nurses to travel to the ADM to dispense the medications for each individual patient at the time of administration. If a nurse is responsible for multiple patients, this can create numerous trips back and forth between the patients' rooms and the ADM. Nurses are subject to interruptions during these trips, further adding to the time that it takes to administer a medication to a patient.